A (sad) Christmas Story

Hope you all had a very happy holiday. Ours was a little rusty. Good, but rusty. It all began with the eye surgery I had to repair the tear duct that has been giving me grief for over 4 years. I had to take the opportunity to have the surgery because our HUMONGOUS deductible had been met for the year...so it had to be done by December 31st. So, needless to say, 9 days before Christmas I went in and had my face cut open and the repair done (it better freakin' fix the problem!!!). So I am recovering from surgery and have an incision on my face. Yay! Then Brynlee developed a high fever on Tuesday before Christmas Eve and a "barky" cough. NOT GOOD. We think it was croupe. Yuck! She muscled through it and we alternated advil and tylenol with a cough supressant for a couple of days. On Christmas Eve we had our traditional dinner at my mom's house. We had a good time and Bryn seemed to feel fine as long as she had some drugs in her. All she had asked Santa for Christmas was a 3 story Barbie Dream House, which I COULD NOT locate for the life of me...until 4 days before Christmas. So Christmas Eve, we put the kiddos to bed and started the "Santa duties" which included Bill spending an hour setting up the 3 story Barbie Dream House. When I went to bed at midnight...I was finally excited for Christmas because I knew the kids were gonna be thrilled with their santa loot. The boys came into our room about 1am carrying Bryn and said she wasn't feeling well, so I kept her in bed with us to make sure she was breathing okay (the croupe makes their lungs full of junk and it can get hard to breathe...kinda freaks a mom out!). It was miserable from that point on. I gave Brynlee some Tylenol at about 6am because the fever was back. Those of you with kids know what I'm talking about when I ask...you know that split second before your kids barfs when you know it's coming, but it's not enough of a warning to actually do anything about it??? Well, we got one of those right before Bryn chucked all over the back side of Bill. Merry Christmas daddy! So here we are, bright and early on Christmas morning starting laundry and baths and showers. And so the morning went on. Bill was driving around town Christmas morning trying ot find any store that was open to get some Sprite and saltine crakers and motrin. Finally he found a 7-11 and paid WAY too much for those three items. Brynlee spent the morning in and out of sleep and vomiting. The boys were trying to be sympathetic, but really they wanted to get out into the living room and do what they had been waiting all year to do. Of, course they each made a comment here and there about maybe not getting to do Christmas this year and I, being the stressed out mom that I was, snapped at them and asked them to go find something to do as long as it didn't require them to leave Kyle or Bryn's rooms. (I couldn't have them go into the living room and REALLY wreck our Christmas morning!) So they went to Kye's room. When I checked on them they told me they said a prayer for Bryn (I'm sure for the salvation of their Christmases too!) and had made her a "get well" card. Finally around 9:30am, Bryn woke up and decided that she wanted to go see what santa had left her, but that she needed daddy to carry her. So I got the video camera rolling and filmed as the boys walked in and started their "Oh wow's" and their "Cool's". Daddy walked, with Bryn in his arms, towards the much saught after 3 story Barbie dream House and just as he did.......Bryn starts vomiting again. On video. To make things even better, we happen to be dog sitting for some friends...a cute little maltese puppy named Fenway. He positioned himself right under the barf zone and so now we had to clean the carpet, the dog, and do MORE laundry. I'm sad that Bryn's reaction to her Dream House was a major gag, but she spent the rest of the day telling me how much she loved santa for bringing her that house. So...my eye still has stitches, the laundry is finally done, the presents have all been opened and palyed with, and most of all Brynlee is feeling much better. But it was definately a Christmas to remember. Watch our video and keep your eye on Bryn...it's only a split second at the end of the clip where you see her start to lose it. I, of course, turned off the camera and threw it down to go catch barf the minute I realized that's what was going on. Anyway...go ahead and laugh...we couldn't help it when we watched it either! I think we might win the craziest Christmas prize this year. What do you think???? Hope all of yours were wonderful and much less eventful than ours!